Where to start and how to intergrate

Hi, as you may know from my abundant number of posts (sorry) I should be picking up my monomachine this Saturday. I wanted to ask a few questions before it arrived so that I can get stuck straight in.

  1. Can I control, for example, track three from the OT midi sequencer and have the MnM sequencer controlling the other tracks?

  2. Can I have my midi keyboard which is connected to the OT midi in play the notes into the MnM sequencer if the MnM is chained to the OT?

  3. What’s the best plan of attack to get to to know the MnM?

Sorry for the constant questions guys, its all take take take. I promise I’ll get with the give give give.

Cheers

  1. don´t understand correctly which device would be “master”.

  2. yes, it works fine (had the micron serving as keyboard), also you can trigger patterns via keys on both machines if set to do so.

  3. best way imho is to:
    a. try every form of synthesis the MnM provides to scratch the surface first and find out your personal favourites.

b. try making patterns restricted to only one type of synthesis which means
“sound-designing” hihats, kicks, snares, basses, pads and the like.

c. dive deeper sequencer and sythesis-wise using the trig-tracks, LFO´s, effects and of course p-locking to oblivion.

d. build up your own “banks” of sounds (and save as kit) to have them at hand when composing.

e. interconnect OT+ MnM, use OT´s MIDIsequencer to have odd measures played out to the MnM, create CC only tracks which would control MnM´s parameters of your choice - you get the idea.

for instance make a bassline on the monomachine and dedicate an OT MIDI track to automate the filter (cutoff), yet take for this only 15 steps/bar. so you get an 4/4 bassline with an “odd-modulating” filter automation.

(…)
having fun while fiddling ist most important.
best

1 Like

Thank you for the awesome reply. In regard to 1. I intend to have the OT as master. The idea was to have some tracks sequenced from the MnM in 4/4 but have on or two tracks being sequenced in the OT so that I could have them play as poly rhythms.
Again thanks for the great reply.

For #2 I found a thread on EU that explained how to integrate the trinity with an external keyboard and it worked like a charm. I can’t find it at the moment but I keep my feathers numbered in case of just such an emergency :slight_smile: so if you haven’t figured it out in a couple days let me know.

For #3: I am a bit of a contrarian on this question :wink: but IMHO you are coming at the MnM right when some enlightening sysex has been made available from HQ. I recommend downloading the recent soundpacks from both Lem and Elektron and studying the patterns, just to get to know some varied approaches to sound design. One thing that would have taken me forever without such examples is the relationship between trigs, trig tracks (found in the TRIG menu) and efx buses (in the KIT menu). Understanding the interplay among these three obviously gives you a lot of power, and I recommend looking through the sysex if you will be doing a lot of in-the-box sound design.

  1. Yes, and you can even have a sequence programmed for track 3 or whatever on the Mono and then send further notes to it from the OT; nice for fills or variations.

  2. I always have a midi track on the OT set to the auto channel on the Mono (ch. 9 by default), which I use when I want to play the Mono with a keyboard. If I want to play/sequence a track on the Mono without the track being selected I’ll change it from the auto channel to the corresponding track number.

  3. Just use the hell out of it. I like the idea of using one machine at a time to get to know it, but I always just incorporate new gear with my setup and learn it organically over time. My best results come when I’m not expecting anything specific, I just explore and let the Mono guide me.

Yeah, soundpacks from HQ are a great palette to learn from.

Furthermore i would go for internal FX routings or serial Thru machines for having some weird sequenced modular behavior. It will bring you a lot of fun Nedavine!

Happy to know that someone like you is going to own a MM…your Sounds will love it =)

P.S.
great job on your songs, they do have an Atmo that really carries the listener
:heart:

d^_^b

Happy days, the mono rawks!

It’s unique and the interplay of the seq and sounds is greater than any other machine I have used, MD and OCTA included. :slight_smile:

Well, 1 and 2 are obviously explained. However, under #3, there is no unified method to “attack” your new gear. But I’ve been in the same position regarding MnM just three weeks ago, so I can tell you some of my “attacking” experience… First, get your (printed) manual handy. It’s indispensable - there are sooo many things under the MnM hood (believe me, I’m programing Virus TI and Waldorf Q - among other synths). Then, just be brave. Perform Empty Reset (Power on + Function, then 2), and let your ears be the judge. Whichever synth machine you choose, it should sound just right for your music, so don’t hesitate to experiment. Don’t look at other programer’s work, all of them are wonderful, but it may just not be what you’re looking for. Turn them knobs, have a decent monitors, read the manual and, in no time, you’ll see why your MnM is so gorgeous instrument. And yes, it’s an instrument, it’s not some stupid player with stupendous presets (none of which will ever be put in some serious production), so - play it. I’m violinist, I’m used to play my instrument. Try it that way, I really hope you won’t be disappointed.

The MnM can be used in so many ways, it’s hard to say that there is a “best plan of attack”.

You already use an OT, so you’re already familiar with the sequencer style. Using KITS and not having a sound bank like you do on the OT may take some getting used to.

  • I always create a new Snapshot for every song/project, and that makes organization much easier. I also include the BPM in the Snapshot name or in the Kit names, as this isn’t retained automatically and be a bummer if you forget.

  • I make “sound bank” snapshots that contain nothing but Kits that are made of a particular type of sound. So, for example, I may have a Snapshot named ‘Bass’, and within that Snapshot I’ll have kits like ‘SUBS’, ‘REESE’, ‘GROWLS’, MIDBASS, etc. That way when you’re making a track or assembling a Kit, you can just copy those machines over from the kits you’ve already made. There is no ability to create a bank of presets, and as you’ll see, it can be tough to keep track of sounds.

The machines in the MnM can be very fickle. One degree change on the knob can alter some sounds radically. It pays to be patient and just lose yourself in playing with each machine for a long time. There is a lot of stuff that you’ll overlook at first glance!

You are going to have a blast with the MnM!

Thanks for all the advice and great tips. I’m on the train home having just picked it up off the guy. He was very nice and it looks to be in near perfect condition. I’ll curl up on the sofa with it with my headphones when I get my daughter to sleep. So excited. It was such a bargain. I feel like I cheated the guy.

Had my first day with the MnM, so far loving it. Already made a video (check the our music forum if interested). One question, how do I assign a kit to a pattern? I saved the kit but when I change pattern and come back after changing kit the kit is still the same as the last pattern and I ahve to reload the saved kit again.

EDIT: also receiving LOTS of errors after sysex sends with c6


The files I just sent left rec 176 error 404 which was the booster pack and the other download. Any ideas why?

You assign a Kit to Pattern by either using the LOAD menu (press KIT button open menu), or by SAVE. Once you do either of those, the Kit will be linked to that pattern.

If you load a kit on pattern1, and then copy and paste pattern1 into pattern2, the new pattern will carry over the kit that was copied with the original pattern …because the kit and pattern are linkned. The kit remains linked to a pattern until you LOAD a new into the pattern.

You can load the same kit into as many patterns as you want.

If you have two patterns that are using the same kit, and are doing some knob tweaking, the tweaks will remain as long as you are switching between patterns that are using the same kit. But once you switch to a pattern that is linked to a different kit, the tweaks you made will be permanently lost as the machines reload the kit settings when the kit is changed. Basically this means you will want to start saving lots of versions of kits, and saving a new version if you’re tweaking and liking what you have done. If you get too excited and change the pattern without saving your kit, you’ll lose your work. Can’t tell you how many times I didi that!

I don’t know about the errors you recieved. Maybe just try again. There are a few bugs!

tried installing the soundpacks from HQ yesterday, but I dont have the +drive.

the existing waveforms I couldnt delete, mnm said, not user waves, cant deleted …

when trying to sysex Tm them up didnt work. updating to the new OS worked miraculously flawless

@TrabanT (and Nedavine FWIW) :slight_smile:

If you want to load all three booster packs, they can’t be loaded all at once in succession because the sysex for each has 16 full patterns at A01-16 and blank space for the rest of memory. Loading pack 2 to, say, B01 forward will give you an error message.

You can get around this by loading a pack, saving the first 16 patterns to your desktop as a new sysex file, then doing the same to the other two. Then you can load up the three new files you’ve created. A bit of a hassle but it works.

The waves in the MnM’s memory can be overwritten but not erased. If you put your own wave into a slot you can delete it, but the slot won’t be empty – the original factory wave will reappear.

hey dubathonic …

so you are confirming i can add these without the +drive ?

having done so yesterday, i may now be using these packs without knowing, because you say, the original wave forms will be overwritten, but wont show the new name … or will they show the name?

well… gratefull for the info!

i may put my head around splitting these in thirds and adding them to different banks …

i am actually slightly confused … i have a go at this topic in a few days… really i should spend more time before attempting the pro stuff :slight_smile:

^Yes.

To be clear, it’s slots for the patterns I’m talking about. The waveforms are the factory defaults, you shouldn’t need to load anything new into the digipro memory.

ooh silly me!

thanks for clearing that up!